(#3) POF: Series 10. Personal Secretary's Files

Administrative Information
Historical Note
Collection Overview

List of Series
Series 1. General Correspondence
Series 2. Special Correspondence
Series 3. Speech Files
Series 4. Legislative Files
Series 5. Press Conferences
Series 6. Staff Memoranda
Series 7. Departments and Agencies
Series 8. Subjects
Series 9. Countries
Series 10. Personal Secretary's Files
Series 11. Special Events through the Years
Series 12. White House Signal Agency
Series 13. Presidential Recordings (White House Meetings and Telephone Recordings file)
ADDITIONS
Addition of June 2005

Collection Description

Series 10. Personal Secretary's Files.
Boxes 129-134

Six boxes [2.5 linear shelf feet] of the Personal Secretary's Files were opened to research in January 1974. Two-tenths of a box [0.08 linear shelf foot] was closed at that time due to donor restrictions or national security classification. One-tenth of a box [0.04 linear shelf foot] of valuable original documents was withdrawn for preservation and replaced by electrostatic copies. This series has been entitled the Personal Secretary's Files by the Kennedy Library for want of a better descriptive heading. The origin of the file is uncertain. It was maintained by the personal secretary either at the direction of President Kennedy or because she found it useful in answering repeated queries from the press and public about personal matters relating to the President and his family. It was evidently begun while John F. Kennedy was a Senator and maintained through the Presidency. Included in the series are materials on articles and books written by and about John F. Kennedy, his organization memberships, gifts to the President, PT109 (boat, book and movie), and an incomplete file of executive orders. The series may be described as a potpourri of miscellaneous information about John F. Kennedy and his associations.

The series is arranged alphabetically by subject with the subseries being Articles, Books, Gifts, Memberships, Messages, PT109 , Schedules, and White House. In many instances the material duplicates or compliments material found elsewhere in the President's Office Files and in other collections and subcollections in the Kennedy Library. For example, there is also material on gifts in the General Correspondence and Countries series of the President's Office Files. Also, the Library has a complete and indexed list of the President's appointments which should probably be relied upon ahead of the "Schedules" found here. Researchers interested in John F. Kennedy as an author should speak with the Library's Printed Materials staff.

Researchers may find this series interesting for information about John F. Kennedy's career, but it should be understood that other portions of the files and other collections should also be checked to verify and supplement material found here.

6.3 Boxes. [2.62 Linear Shelf Feet]